Hiring a good SEO company to handle your company’s SEO needs is key to finding success online. However, not all SEO services are the same. The services they offer can vary dramatically, their prices can be too high or suspiciously low, and there are countless other things to consider.
You will be working closely with your chosen SEO company, and it’s important to make sure you’re going to be a good match.
To do that, you’re going to have to ask a few questions. I’ve highlighted the most important questions you should ask to ensure you find somebody worth working with.
Some of the answers may be available on the company’s website, but it’s still best to ask a qualified representative about each one. The quotes and service lists on websites are usually fairly general, and you want the most accurate information possible before you commit to hiring a particular service.
Let’s get started.
This is probably the most important question to ask. You're a business owner. You have to work within a budget, and it doesn't matter how stellar a company is if their service is going to bankrupt you in a couple of months.
Before you ask this, you should have a general idea of what you’re willing to spend per month. It’s important not to go too cheap on this end. You may find some bottom-barrel guy offering a “full service” for fifty bucks and a slice of pizza, but the results you get aren’t going to be worthwhile.
The average price to look for is roughly $2,819, but if you take a look at AM Marketing SEO, you can get SEO work done for between $395 and $1295 per month. That’s not pocket change, but it’s a steal of a deal to keep in mind.
If you speak to an SEO company that quotes a price far above that maximum rate, or one that is so low it’s suspicious, it’s a good idea to reconsider.
SEO is more than just optimizing what’s on your website. It includes things such as guest-blog content that creates backlinks, fleshing out Google’s auto-generated business profiles, and various other things that aren’t directly tied to your website but can still drive traffic to it.
However, not every SEO service offers this, and even if they do, many charge extra to do it. That’s something to consider since off-page SEO is such a useful tool.
Ideally, your chosen SEO company will tie this in with its cost, or it will offer it at an affordable fee. If a company doesn’t offer it at all, you might want to reconsider.
Alrighty, after a company's costs, this is probably the second most important question to ask. Some SEO services offer a complete service from start to finish. They'll analyze what you have available, design a strategy to fix any issues, and then begin working to implement that strategy until results are seen. Some even go a step beyond that and stay with you as you continue to develop your online presence. In short, these companies act as a partnership in many ways.
On the other hand, some companies function more like advisors and consultants. They’ll analyze your site, make some suggestions, and that’s about it. In that case, it’s up to you to make those changes and implement them into your site design and any off-page content you have.
If you're not knowledgeable about this process, the advice doesn't mean much. Even if you are, you essentially paid for mentorship and still have to put in all the heavy lifting. However, if you're comfortable with the heightened workload and have the skills, it might save you some money.
Reporting is a key part of SEO. It’s essentially tracking the progress all your efforts are making. Without it, you don’t get a lot of in-depth data to work with, and it’s harder to tweak your approach as you go.
Some companies handle this “reporting” access. They’ll track the data coming in from your SEO efforts, and they’ll relay that back to you. Most of the time, they’ll even incorporate that data into new strategies to help you find further success.
However, not every company handles reporting, and this can be a major drawback. Make sure you know if it’s part of the bargain before you commit to a deal.
If you took your car to a mechanic, asked them when your car would be fixed, and they said “When it’s fixed”, you probably wouldn’t hire that mechanic. The same goes for SEO work.
Properly implementing SEO changes takes quite a bit more time than it does to fix a car, and the results can fluctuate depending on your business and a few other factors. However, an SEO company should be able to give you a general time frame for when you’ll start seeing the fruits of your investment.
Usually, this is about 6 months, but it can be as much as a year for brand-new sites. Be flexible with your expectations, but don’t settle for a lack of transparency, either.
Finally, a company’s success rate is important. You don’t want to pay someone who is more or less known for doing the bare minimum and letting their clients down.
Obviously, no SEO company is going to get results for 100% of their clients. There's always going to be that one company selling leftover lawn clippings or some other nonsense that no amount of SEO is going to help, and there are also poor businesses that start seeing results but nullify them with poor customer service, outrageous prices, and other things that just don't work for modern customers.
However, a company’s success rate should be very high. If 90% or more of their clients are seeing great results, that’s a good sign that you can trust them.
If you’re looking for an SEO company that aces all of these requirements at a reasonably low price, try AM Marketing SEO.
I’m Antonie, the SEO specialist who has helped countless companies, including the top US companies, to turn their online presence around with astounding results. If you’d like to ask me some questions and see how AM Marketing SEO can help you, book a call with me for free.
